Curiously enough, the first time in along time that PHYS-L has gotten
into a big religion/science type of discussion... I'm off at Bible camp
and miss it. A few comments before I head off again (I'm just in for a
few hours to clear out email etc):
First, of all the conservative evangelical ("born again") christians
that I know personally who have a PhD in some area of science (and I
know quite a few) - not a single one is a "young earth" creationist.
Neither is young earth creationism given much credit within much of the
rest of conservative christian academia as far as I can see. As an
example, I was recently asked about whether I would consider a position
at a proposed local Mennonite university (not a job offer, just an
inquiry). The question that came to mind was how harassed I would be by
other faculty and students regarding the age of the Universe. The
response was that it was highly unlikely that any faculty member would
have a problem with "theistic evolution". Also, of the thousands of
people who've read my web page refuting the "evolution violates the
second law" argument, I've only had one creationist write to challenge
me. In short, my viewpoint is that much ot the perceived threat is due
to putting too much stock in the size of a loud minority. What was
posted here regarding the Kansas law does sound like a real problem to
be addressed, but I suspect that many here would be very surprised to
see who some of their allies are in the battle.
On the other hand, I think what we are seeing from Kenneth Morgan is
frustration with what appears to be a double standard in the matter of
what religious material may be brought into various classrooms. My own
experience is that christian academics have learned a great deal of
restraint and are seldom the ones to even bring up the matter of
religion in a classroom setting. However, one can easily find Zen being
taught in Quantum classes, atheism in evolution classes... not to
mention a general undertone of sneering at religion in general and
especially at either Roman Catholicism or fundamentalism. Many
christians simply don't see themselves as being on a level playing
field, rather they percieve that the reaction to the privileged position
of Christianity in the past is to oppress it in the present.
The main reason that I've stuck with PHYS-L for so many years is that
the participants generally show a large deal of mutual respect for each
other's viewpoints. I hope that pattern holds up in this discussion.